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Guide to Online Poker in the United States

U.S. POKER WEBSITES & LAW YOU CAN TRUST

TRUSTWORTHY POKER WEBSITES

Owner Note: This website is maintained daily as a full guide to state online poker law for use for free prior to playing online poker in the United States. This knowledge stems from over a decade (10+ year) long experience within the gaming industry. To your left are state by state laws updated daily as new bills deem necessary with their estimated legalization dates. The complete first page of Google shows results that were written by spammers and retarded hired monkey writers that by no way should be writing legal articles – or anything for that matter.

The recommendations below are for sites located outside of the US but are still offering services to U.S. players. It is Federally legal to play on these sites. If you live within NJ, DE, NV, or PA then you have the alternate option to play for real money at poker websites licensed by the state. The bulk of players within NJ, DE, NV, and PA borders are doing so at WSOP.com, Borgata, or PokerStarsNJ.

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I assume you are here to not just know state laws but what sites to play at. With all the regulatory news that comes out many are misinformed and misrepresented as to where they can play by state or by nation. We’ve taken the guess work out and simplified it into exactly what you need with a few of my best choices, not by who pays me the most but whom most players judge as the best site. I wouldn’t recommend more than 3 (three) poker sites at the moment, the others are just scams that occur online. I never have nor will I compromise my strong morals for ad dollars. Here are the voted best from among our peers within the poker industry.

EXPECTED DATE OF LEGALIZATION

AL

AK

AZ

AR

CA

CO

CT

FL

GA

HI

ID

IL

IN

IA

KS

KY

LA

ME

MD

MA

MI

MN

MS

MO

MT

NE

NH

NM

NY

NC

ND

OH

OK

OR

RI

SC

SD

TN

TX

UT

VT

VA

WA

WV

WI

WY

20222021202020192018

Current USA State Licensed Online Gambling Bills in the Works – Last Updated 8/1/2018

Last year, four online gambling bills (HB 271, SB 524, SB 477, and HB 392) were introduced in Pennsylvania. On May 23, 2017, a bill (HB 271) to legalize online poker and casino games passed the Senate Community, Economic & Recreational Development Committee (11-3 vote) and the Senate Appropriations Committee (24-2 vote). The very next day on May 24th, the full Senate passed this bill by a 38-12 vote. Two weeks later on June 7th, the House passed this bill by a 102-89 vote. Changes were made to the bill by the House, mainly the tax rate percentage on revenue, so it went back to the Senate for vote approval. On October 26, 2017, the Senate passed the bill and the governor signed it into law four days later on October 30th.

Internet poker bills in January and February last year were introduced in New York. On February 15, 2017, one of the bills passed the Senate Gaming Committee by a 11-0 vote. The bill then went to the Senate Finance Committee which passed by a 27-9 vote on May 9th of last year. A month later on June 13th, the full Senate passed this bill by a 54-8 vote but did not receive a vote by the Assembly.

A bill, SB 203, to regulated internet poker and casino games in Michigan was introduced on March 1, 2017. This bill passed the Senate Regulatory Reform Committee a week later on March 8th by a 7-1 vote and it went to the full Senate for a potential vote but did not receive one. Another online gaming bill, HB 4926, was introduced on September 12, 2017. Michigan is making good progress on passing an iGaming bill and more movement is expected to happen this year.

On January 10th, West Virginia presented a bill (HB 3067) to legalize online poker and casino games. The bill currently sits in a House Committee awaiting a hearing and potential vote.

Around March 1st, Louisiana introduced a bill (SB 322) to legalize online gambling.

It appears California will not be introducing any online poker bills this year. Last February, Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer introduced AB 1677, a bill to legalize and regulate online poker. It looks like the same bill as the previous year (AB 2863), and unfortunately, it didn’t make anymore headway last year. Legislators made some additions and revisions to the bill to please the racetrack industry, which they were successful in doing so.

The Illinois Senate passed a bill, HB 479, to regulate and legalize online gambling (poker and casino games) on May 31, 2017 by a 42-10 vote. This bill then went to the House of Representatives but it did not receive a vote.

In 2017: Senator Bruce Tarr introduced a bill, SD. 618, in late January to legalize online gambling in Massachusetts. It’s only two pages so more details will need to be filled in, but it’s a start. In Hawaii, Senator Will Espero introduced a bill (SB 677) on January 20th to legalize internet poker. A Senate Committee in Washington met on January 18th to discuss the possibilities of passing and regulating poker online. New Hampshire introduced HB 562, a bill allowing online gambling in the state, on January 25th. Unfortunately, none of these bills advanced last year.

Live Poker Site Traffic

Our main focus as you can see is on the legal prospect concerning poker websites in the United States. Currently, only the four states we have in our top navigation went forth to legalize and regulate online poker on the state level. Twenty three (23) U.S. states have, or had, bills in their state legislature process actively seeking to also legalize online poker sites.

Online poker is still in its “Rebirth” or “Second Coming” in the United States. Increasingly more states are beginning processes to regulate and legalize the activity. If a bill on the Federal Level (not state) is passed to legalize the game nationwide we could be in for a dramatic resurgence of internet poker websites and new players. The first to happen in 15 years, since 2003.

Our goal at PokerWebsites.com is to be the most trusted and cited authority on state law data condensed for the purposes of online gambling. We keep you posted on pending bills across all 50 U.S. states by updating our articles daily, or when information is received.

We also have breakdowns of the poker room we believe is the best choice for your state, whether they might be based offshore or are state licensed, and we are confident in their safety otherwise a “No Recommendation” will be displayed. Today is an exciting time for online poker in this country, and we hope you will enjoy the ride with us.

Our criteria for evaluating sites are listed below:

GAME SECURITY

There is a lot of fraud out there and for the most part the cardrooms we mention have high standards in security. There has been security breaches at just about every poker site, but in today’s advanced technology it’s pretty rare to financially get hurt playing online poker because of cheating or other bad things on the web. Here is an article about poker scams and sites we think are the worst. Over the millions of dollars I’ve handled only once did I get hurt by fraud and I was quickly refunded the $10,000 the person attempted to take from my account. We believe in honest websites and support the Poker Players Anonymous financially, and other player ‘guard dog’ sites.

US ACCEPTANCE & PAID

Laws, laws, laws. Probably the most common question second to how you get paid and deposit. I get asked at Brick and Mortar poker rooms whether poker is legal or not. The answer is yes, it’s absolutely positively 100% legal to play online poker. Poker websites that accept transactions are the only ones that are breaking any rules. The way you deposit is by VISA, MC or AMEX like anywhere else.

HIGH PLAYER TRAFFIC

This is very important for players who are either impatient or want to play against the most players possible to reduce the risk of collusion. At the time of writing this page, one exciting concept evolved into online poker where you never have to wait for a hand to be dealt. You fold, and you’re moved to another table where you instantly get another hand dealt to you. It’s not for the novice who wants to just relax and play poker, but it can increase a winning players “ROI” exponentially.

POKER BONUSES AND FAST PAYOUTS

Bonuses can look attractive, but bigger is not always better; no pun intended. One bad example of a bonus is the World Series of Poker. In poker it’s all about how fast a bonus is released. Yes, some poker websites will give the money instantly, others will make you play poker for 10, 20, 100 hours before they give you the bonus stated. That’s why release rates are so important. Paypal has returned to state based poker sites which will make payouts immediate (currently allowed in NV and NJ only). For offshore sites, credit card deposits remain at 80% popularity with an average 65% success rate.

There are very limited options for customers located in the United States to play at mainly because most pay very slowly or are not paying at all. The ones recommended above have a 2-9 day payout rate on average.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

It’s very annoying waiting a few days to get a simple email answered and my view of the poker sites safety diminishes – quickly. It’s very annoying to wait a day to get an email answered. Heck, to me it’s annoying to have to wait longer than an hour. I want live customer support and while these poker sites are making millions of dollars a day in revenues you will be surprised at how bad some of their customer support is. On the other hand, some have live customer support inside of their software, or a phone number you can call to get your questions answered when you want it.

WHO ARE WE?

I am easily contacted by the email on pokerwebsites.com “about us” section. There you will find our qualifications to run this website.